Posts Tagged ‘Affliction’

According to si.com, fighter Tito Ortiz will sign a “ground breaking” deal with the MMA organization Affliction. The Tito-Ortiz-to-Affliction story was first broken by Yahoo! Sports and was updated today by Steve Cofield.

Steve Cofield and Yahoo! Sports are reporting that Tito Ortiz will fight on the October Affliction card in Las Vegas. Ortiz would be matched against Babalu in the “co-main event.” Fedor is also on the card in a heavyweight matchup against Andrei Arlofski.

Saturday night marked the first time that MMA organizations UFC and upstart Affliction went head-to-head on the same night. To combat Affliction’s “Banned” card (their biggest to date) UFC put a free card on Spike tv to go up against it.

The Affliction card was held before a sold out crowd in Anaheim. Fedor destroyed former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia with a rear naked choke 36 seconds into the first round of the main event. Heavyweight Andrei Arlovski also looked good with a third round knockout. Other winners included Josh Barnett, Nogueira, Matt Lindland, Paul Buentello, Vitor Belfort, Babalu, and Mike Pyle.

UFC’s event was held at The Palms in Las Vegas. Anderson Silva, the UFC’s middleweight champion, moved up to the 205 pound weight class and destroyed James Irvin with a first round knockout. Other fights on the card included victories by Kevin Burns and Brandon Vera . Hermes Franca and Jake O’Brien were surprise losers on the UFC card.

UFC 87 will take place in Minneapolis August 6th. It features welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. Minnesota native and former wrestling star Brock Lesnar is also on the card. Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta will batlle at 155 pounds as well.

AOL Fanhouse reports Billionaire Donald Trump held a press conference yesterday to announce his purchase of a stake in Affliction, a rival MMA organization with plans to compete against UFC.

Trump also used the press conference to announce the signing of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. Arlovski is scheduled to fight on a July 19th pay-per-view card along with Fedor who is fighting another former UFC champ, Tim Sylvia.

Other former UFC fighters in the Affliction stable include Josh Harnett, Noguiera and Babalu.

Trump says he also wants to sign popular light heavyweight Tito Ortiz.